Three face arraignment in Yucaipa homicide

Three young men ordered held in custody the beating death of 46-year-old Mark Douglas Smith are scheduled to appear in court Friday for formal arraignment.
Judge Michael A. Smith ruled that all three defendants -- Aaron Alan Dixon, Christopher Dean Dacosta and Kelly Lucien McLeod -- should be held over for trial after listening to testimony at a preliminary hearing on Oct. 23 in San Bernardino Superior Court.
Dixon was held on charges of voluntary manslaughter, while Dacosta and McLeod face charges of murder for their alleged roles in Smith's death, according to prosecutor Terry Brown, of the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.
The three defendants attended a small party at a residence in the 34000 block of Avenue E, in Yucaipa, in July, according to testimony from Sheriff's detectives at the Oct. 23 hearing. Smith, the victim, was also at the party and was reportedly acting inappropriately with young girls -- some of whom were minors.
The girls reported that a drunken Smith had been grabbing at their bodies and making inappropriate comments to them, testified Detective Rick Bessinger.
Dixon fought with Smith, and Smith was left sitting on the floor next to the front door. McLeod and Dacosta then put an apparently unconscious Smith into the back of pickup truck, dumped him into a drainage ditch near a dirt extension of Avenue E and left, according to testimony.
The pair are accused of returning to the ditch about a half hour later to beat Smith with a metal pipe, which was subsequently cleaned with bleach. Authorities found Smith's body lying face down in the ditch, with blunt force injuries to the head and various scrapes on the back.